Air-cooled heat exchangers and other similar types of heating and cooling equipment are used in many industries, including oil refineries, petrochemical manufacturing, drilling and reservoir applications, natural gas manufacture, transportation systems, the chemical manufacturing industry, transportation industry and various industrial uses. Essentially, they are used wherever heat exchange equipment may be implemented and required to maintain constant temperature in equipment or climate control in manufacturing and processing and/or in transporting materials that must be kept at constant temperature.
One problem in the art with respect to such apparatus, particularly with respect to air-cooled heat exchangers, is that the equipment typically involves use of grease-lubed, sealed ball bearings, which are situated on the top portion or surface of a heat exchanger. The lubricants and bearing assemblies are thus constantly heated when the fan pulls heat from the heat exchanger. The fans pull cool air across the fins to extract heat from fluid in the heat exchanger. The lubricants are not only affected by heat, but also are affected by the work that is done by the individual balls in the ball bearing assembly. Bearings typically fail in approximately eighteen months of service. Failure contributes to high expenses associated with replacement due to peripheral equipment for associated with disassembling the fan to replace the bearings. Thus, current costs can be about $20,000 for a single replacement. Similar replacement and failure costs can be seen in various types of heating and cooling equipment throughout the various industries noted.
There is a need in the art for a bearing assembly that will enable a longer life for bearings between failures as well as that will allow for an easier replacement process.